Page 81 of Theoden
It no longer mattered what their plans were, I had found my brother. Using all the speed and skill I had acquired in nearly two centuries, I swooped down as a bird did to his prey and snatched Raphael from his crouched hiding place among the bushes and trees. He screamed and flailed in my arms, but it was all in vain as I was much stronger than him. As for the wolves now clamoring about, grabbing rocks and sticks to toss at me in their pathetic attempt to save Raphael, I decided to dispatch of them myself.
I locked my arm around Raphael’s neck, keeping him close to me, and with my other hand, I channeled the fire within me and blasted it at them, setting each one ablaze in my inferno. They screamed and ran around in pain and fright as the flames overtook their bodies. I watched as they all burned to death, their corpses smoldering like logs on a camp fire.
“You son of a bitch!” Raphael roared as he continued to struggle against me.
“Father wants to see you,” I said, ignoring his curses and futile fighting.Father, I have Raphael and I’m coming home, I told Ara with my mind’s voice.
I am proud of you, my son,Ara said, and I felt my heart swell with the pride he instilled in me.
It didn’t take me as long to return as it had for me to hunt for Raphael, but once we landed, I took Raphael to where my Father was, which was in the grand hall. He was standing there with silver chains in his hands and I tossed Raphael at his feet.
“As you commanded, Father,” I said, pleased with the fact that I was the one who had found Raphael, and not my brothers. The victory would only stand to prove my superiority among them all.
“Such an obedient son,” Ara said, then he looked down at Raphael. “And such a disappointing one.”
Raphael climbed to his knees, his head bowed. “Forgive me, Father.”
Ara reached down, taking Raphael’s chin into his hand, and lifted his face to his. “I’m sorry, my child. But what you have done is an unforgiveable betrayal. A most heinous offense to the one who gave you life.” With that, he spit in Raphael’s face. An act that showed his great displeasure and disdain for Raphael’s actions. He released Raphael’s chin, then backhanded him across the jaw, sending Raphael sliding across the marble floor. “Chain him up!” he commanded of me, and tossed me the silver chains.
I let them fall to the floor, then picked them up from their leather covered cuffs, so as not to burn myself. I walked over to Raphael and flipped him over so he was now lying face down on the marble. I pressed my knee into his back and began to lock his wrists and then his ankles in the cuffs. He didn’t try to fight me, maybe he knew there would be no point.
“What next, Father?” I asked as I rose to my feet.
“We wait for your brothers to arrive,” Ara said, then he left the great hall.
I took a deep breath and looked down at Raphael, whom I supposed I was responsible for at the moment. “Why did you do it?” I asked. I needed to know why he would betray our Father and if he really thought he would get away with it.
“Because,” Raphael paused to spit a tooth out of his mouth and some of his own blood. He struggled to roll over and I kicked him with my foot, giving him the help he needed to roll onto his back and bound hands. “It was the right thing to do.”
I scoffed. “‘The right thing to do’?”
He nodded. “They did not belong in our prison to die for our entertainment.”
I laughed at that. “For nearly a hundred years, you used to enjoy them dying for our entertainment.”
“I know, but that was before I realized how wrong we were.”
I rolled my eyes. “Perhaps it was before you fell in love with Adan’s furry cock. He made you his bitch, brother.”
Raphael laughed harshly and shook his head. “He freed me of Father’s hold. He gave me the strength to do what I needed to do.”
“And where did that get you? Your wolf friends are dead and you will soon join them. Father will not forgive what you’ve done, brother,” I said. I was so angry with Raphael. How could he betray all of us the way he had, taking the side of fucking wolves no less?!
“When Ara made me kill my lover, he ceased being my Father,” Raphael said.
His words were filled with so much hate, I could taste their bitterness and malice. How could he hate Ara so much? How could any vampire child hate their parent? I could only love Ara, as he had given me everything I had ever wanted and things I didn’t even know I’d wanted. How could Raphael take that for granted?
“Ara loved you. Adan warped your mind because he wanted to manipulate you. He knew you would defy Father if you loved him enough.”
Raphael looked up at me and his face took on this calm expression and he gave me a sad smile. “I feel sympathy for you, brother. You have never experienced what true love is. You do not know what it means to really love something bigger than yourself. How it feels to give yourself to someone completely and let them give themselves to you. To hold one’s heart in your hand as they hold yours. You are but a slave who thinks he is free.”
My first thought was to kick him in his face for the bullshit he was spewing, but I held my temper. Rousing me was what he wanted to do. He knew he was going to die, and he wanted to leave his mark. “My Father has my love. Ara has my mind, body, and soul, and my loyalty. I love you, brother, you and Karim being the only two who mean something to me. You did not only betray Father tonight, but you betrayed me, too, and I hate you for that.”
“You can hate me, but I will always love you, Théoden. You are still lost in what you think love is. I cannot fault you for that. But my loyalty to Ara could not continue when it was he who betrayed me first. It was he who did not want to compete with my love for Adan, and that is why he killed Adan. That is why he wanted to punish me for giving my love to another, so he forced me to do the deed. Ara betrayed me with his cruelty, and he will do the same to you if you ever find someone you want to share your life with. He will not be denied.”
I shook my head. “Ara knows of my affections for Tylendel, our friendship.”
Raphael chuckled. “Your relationship with the dragon Knight benefits him. My relationship with Adan, a wolf slave, did not.”
